AT&T flings cellphone network wide open — NEW YORK — Starting immediately, AT&T (T) customers can ditch their AT&T phones and use any wireless phone, device and software application from any maker — think smartphones, e-mail and music downloading. And they don't have to sign a contract.

Facebook Messages: Small Change, Big Impact. — Dear Facebook: Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. — In August Facebook opened up their messaging system to allow people to add normal email addresses. I wrote a post praising the change, but I specifically asked for more:

iPhone 1.1.3 to bring voice capture, disk mode? — Apple may be preparing a significant update for the iPhone as early as this weekend that will have some heavily requested features, according to a claim from CNET France. The site points to multiple reports that a 1.1.3 upgrade for the iPhone …

Google Releases Chart Image Generator — Google released a chart generator service they are calling the Google Chart API. Usage is quite straightforward: you link to an image in the form of a parameterized URL, e.g. (line break added) — http://chart.apis.google.com/ chart? cht=

Dell to sell PCs at Best Buy — Beginning in the next few weeks, Dell notebooks and desktops will be for sale at Best Buy, the companies announced Thursday. — Several models of XPS and Inspiron PCs will be available at 900 Best Buy locations, including the XPS M1330 in white …

Next version of IE is IE8 — Well, its official. The next version of IE will be, well, IE8. In fact, Bill Gates himself was heard calling it IE8 at Microsoft's Mix 'n Mash event over at the Redmond campus. — Perhaps you won't be so sarcastic if you looked at the list of names actually considered …

Zannino Out at Dow Jones (DJ/NWS). Who's Next? — Two weeks ago, we shared the word on the street about who was in and who was out at the post-Murdoch Jones. CEO Richard Zannino, we had heard, was out. And now Newsweek confirms that he's expected to announce his resignation tomorrow afternoon, a week before the deal closes.

Microsoft to Try Windows XP Out on OLPC in January — Microsoft field trials of Windows XP running on the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop will take place next month. — Recommend this story? — Microsoft said it plans to conduct field trials in January of Windows XP running on the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop.

IBM researchers build supercomputer-on-a-chip — San Francisco - Supercomputers may soon be the same size as a laptop if IBM brings to market research detailed on Thursday, in which pulses of light replace electricity to make data transfer between processor cores on a chip up to one-hundred times faster.

Apple's rising popularity lures hackers — After years of relative safety, the Apple Mac is becoming an increasingly tempting target for malicious computer hackers, according to a new report published this week. — Security researchers have been aware of the threat to Apple since last year …

Flexible-jointed robot is no pushover — If robots are going to work alongside humans, then they will need to stand up to accidental bumps and shoves, not to mention the occasional deliberate kick. — That is why researchers in Japan have developed software that allows a life-size humanoid robot …

Apple Store 14th Street press preview — We got a chance to preview the new Manhattan Apple Store this morning before the official unveiling tomorrow at 6PM. The store is nicely situated on W. 14th St. and 9th Ave., and while Apple did its best to blend into the existing early 20th century architecture …

Skype - Is 10,000 Page Faults per Second normal? — I am writing this as a follow-up to yesterday's Tech Talk about Skype. I mentioned this issue then, and I have received a number of requests for additional information about it. There have been some new developments today, as well.

Small New Features Make Gmail Better — It seems that Gmail 2.0 is all about small new features. There may be small, but you'll find plenty of minor updates and there are more to come. — Contact tooltips — The tooltip that showed up when you hovered over the name of a contact …